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четверг, 28 августа 2014 г.

U.S. official says 1,000 Russian troops enter Ukraine

By Victoria Butenko, Laura Smith-Spark and Diana Magnay

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- A top
Ukrainian army officer said a "full-scale invasion" of his country
was under way Thursday, as a U.S. official said up to 1,000 Russian troops had
crossed Ukraine's southern border to fight alongside pro-Russian rebels.

U.S. officials said Russian
troops were directly involved in the latest fighting, despite Moscow's denials.

Rebels backed by Russian tanks
and armored personnel carriers fought Ukrainian forces on two fronts Thursday:
southeast of rebel-held Donetsk, and along the nation's southern coast in the
town of Novoazovsk, about 12 miles (20 km) from the Russian border, according
to Mykhailo Lysenko, the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Donbas battalion.

"This is a full-scale
invasion," Lysenko said, referring to the fighting in the south.captured in east

Intelligence now indicates that up to
1,000 Russian troops have moved into southern Ukraine with heavy weapons and
are fighting there, a U.S. official told CNN Thursday.

NATO
provided what it said is evidence: satellite images showing Russian troops
engaged in military operations inside Ukraine.

"The
images, captured in late August, depict Russian self-propelled artillery units
moving in a convoy through the Ukrainian countryside and then preparing for
action by establishing firing positions in the area of Krasnodon,
Ukraine," NATO said in a news release.

Ukraine's
National Defense and Security Council said that Russian forces were in full
control of Novoazovsk as of Wednesday afternoon.

Russia's
military fired Grad rockets into the town and its suburbs before sending in two
convoys of tanks and armored personnel carriers from Russia's Rostov region, it
said in a statement

"Ukrainian
troops were ordered to pull out to save their lives. By late afternoon both
Russian convoys had entered the town. Ukraine is now fortifying nearby Mariupol
to the west," the NDSC said.

A
number of villages in the Novoazovsk, Starobeshiv and Amvrosiiv districts were
also seized, it said.

The
NDSC also warned that a rebel counterattack is expected in the area where
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in July. Ukrainian and Western
officials believe it was downed by rebels armed with Russian-made weapons.

Novoazovsk
is strategically important because it lies on the main road leading from the
Russian border to Ukraine's Crimea region, which Russia annexed in March.
Separatist leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions then declared
independence from Kiev.

U.N.
Security Council to meet

As
international concern mounted over the apparent escalation in fighting,
Lithuania requested an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

UK
ambassador to the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant said Russia would be asked to
explain why its soldiers are in Ukraine.

U.N.
political chief Jeffrey Feltman, who is just back from Ukraine, is expected to
give the Security Council an update on the troop situation there.

Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had earlier
called for the U.N. meeting, as well as action by Europe.

The
latest flare-up comes despite a meeting between Poroshenko and Russian
President Vladimir Putin in Belarus on Tuesday at which some progress appeared
to have been made toward finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Poroshenko
canceled a planned trip to Turkey on Thursday "due to sharp aggravation of
the situation in Donetsk region ... as Russian troops were brought into
Ukraine," a statement from his office said.

In
a Cabinet meeting, Yatsenyuk said Russia "has very much increased its
military presence in Ukraine" and that tougher measures may be needed to
curb Russia's support for the rebels.

"Unfortunately,
the sanctions were unhelpful as to de-escalating the situation in
Ukraine," he said, referring to the economic sanctions imposed by the
United States and European Union against Russian individuals and companies.

Yatsenyuk
suggested one way to halt "Russian aggression" could be to freeze all
assets and ban all Russian bank transactions until Russia "pulls out all
its military, equipment and agents" from Ukraine.

"Vladimir
Putin has purposely started a war in Europe. It is impossible to hide from the
fact," he said.

U.S.
ambassador: Russia is directly involved

U.S.
Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt also said Thursday that Russian soldiers
were directly involved in the fighting, alongside the pro-Russian rebels.

"Russian-supplied
tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and multiple rocket launchers have been
insufficient to defeat Ukraine's armed forces, so now an increasing number of
Russian troops are intervening directly in the fighting on Ukrainian
territory," he said on Twitter.

"Russia
has also sent its newest air defense systems including the SA-22 into eastern
Ukraine and is now directly involved in the fighting."

Moscow
denies supporting and arming the pro-Russian rebels. It has also repeatedly
denied allegations by Kiev that it has sent troops over the border.

A
Russian senator and the deputy head of the Committee on Defense and Security in
Russia's upper house of Parliament, Evgeny Serebrennikov, dismissed the latest
reports of a Russian incursion as untrue.

"We've
heard many statements from the government of Ukraine, which turned out to be a
lie. What we can see now is just another lie," he said to Russian state
news agency RIA Novosti.

"I
can only say that there's no ground for claims like this, and the junta tries
to lay its own fault at someone else's door," he said, referring to the
Kiev government.

Moscow
regards it as illegitimate because it took charge after Ukraine's pro-Russian
President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February.

Russian soldiers detained
in Ukraine; leaders meet in Minsk

Rebel
leader: 3,000 to 4,000 Russians in our ranks

However,
the Prime Minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko,
acknowledged Thursday that there are current Russian servicemen fighting in the
rebels' ranks in eastern Ukraine.

In
his statement, televised on state-run Russia 24, Zakharchenko said the rebels
have never concealed that many Russians are fighting with them. He said up
until now there were 3,000 to 4,000 volunteers, some of whom are retired
Russian servicemen.

Zakharchenko
went on to reveal that the Russian servicemen currently fighting in their ranks
are active, "as they came to us to struggle for our freedom instead of
their vacations."

On
Tuesday, Ukraine's Security Service said it had detained 10 Russian soldiers in
Ukraine.

Russian
state media cited a source in the Russian Defense Ministry as saying the
soldiers had been patrolling the border and "most likely crossed by
accident" at an unmarked point.

The
NDSC said Thursday that Ukraine's Security Service detained another Russian
serviceman who testified that his unit was supplying heavy military equipment
to militants.

Six questions -- what's
happening in Ukraine?

Ukrainian
volunteers retreat from Mariupol area

Pro-Kiev
forces apparently already have engaged with rebel forces between Novoazovsk and
Mariupol, the Sea of Azov port city 35 kilometers to the west that the
country's security council said was being fortified.

A
CNN crew north of Mariupol saw a ragged convoy of about 25 vehicles, some with
their windows smashed out, belonging to pro-Kiev volunteer fighters heading
away from the city Thursday afternoon.

The
volunteers, including two from the country of Georgia, said they'd been
involved in fighting in the Mariupol area but didn't provide details.

Earlier
Thursday and further north, the CNN crew was near Donetsk city, which Ukrainian
forces have been trying to wrest from rebels for weeks. Heavy Ukrainian artillery
fire targeted areas near Donetsk's southern suburbs amid a heavy downpour of
rain.

The
main highway 15 kilometers south of Donetsk was deserted. With return fire
coming from Donetsk, villagers in the area said they'd been taking shelter
indoors or underground, coming out only for an hour or two a day to get
supplies.

The
city of Luhansk, a rebel stronghold, has also been at the center of fighting
for days, prompting a humanitarian crisis. The NDSC said it remained without
water, power or phone connections Thursday.

Facts from History

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Strategy for engagement and joint actions on confidence building and P2P diplomacy that involve women. Final Report

YOUTH PEACE PLAN OF GEORGIA

This publication is produced within the framework of the project - ‘‘Support Democratic Participation of Young Women in Building Peace and Stability in Georgia’’ implemented in Georgia by International Network for Civil Development - INCD in partnership with Young Women Experts’ Network for Peace and Security (YWEPS) and with the financial support of the Embassy of Canada through Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).